I share the real-life stories that inspired my books, as well as other travel adventures, and posts on the food, history, and culture of the Southwest United States.

Monday, July 24, 2017

Meet #Romance Author Mia Jo Celeste and Share Some #AuthorLove

OTHER THAN, a Gaslamp
Fantasy/ Paranormal Historical Romance

It only takes one drink from the Water of Immortality to kill Evie
Woods—halfway. Trapped in undead flesh, the world’s last skin-slider wakens on
an island purgatory where a cursed spring bubbles with immortality, and zombie
cannibals crave living flesh.

Her only hope of escape rests in the hands of the one man who
would see her fail. Bound to her by cords stronger than death, Lord Victor
Lowell is both the man of her dreams, and her darkest nightmares. Contrary and
intractable, Victor preys on others to maintain his angelic charisma and
preternatural prowess. Drawn to the compellingly gallant and vulnerable soul
behind his mercurial humors, Evie can only watch as protecting her forces
Victor to sacrifice yet more of himself to the ancient evil long tethered to
his soul.

Trapped in an ever-escalating war they can’t stop, Victor and Evie
fight time for a cure, but as the long days pass blackness tears at Evie,
ripping her thoughts from her one memory at a time. Victor will to do whatever
it takes to prevent her from deteriorating into a rotting husk, even if it
means dooming himself, but Evie won’t surrender his soul without a fight. Battle lines drawn, the soul mates
resolve to find redemption or die trying.

Excerpt:

He
materialized in the inky shadow.

Or rather his apparition did. His
ghostly frame hovered before her, sinuous and lithe. Against his shadowed form,
the string glimmered like liquid silver. Slowly he unwrapped her, tossing the
spectral bands to the floor until a coil lay between him and her.

Something inside her chest fluttered.
“You followed me.”

An accusation.

He nodded. With a slight shrug, he
spread his hands. “You shouldn’t be alone.”

She wanted to turn, giving him her back,
but her betraying gaze remained fixated upon him. When he paced around her, she
waved him away. “Don’t.”

He caught her hand and placed an
insubstantial kiss in her palm. “Let me help you…please.”

A gallant gesture, perhaps, but her
skin-slider sensitivity noted the rigidity of his stance, the twitch along his
jaw, and the slight narrowing of his eyes. How could he think of helping her
when he was in so much pain?

Ordinarily, she might be grateful.
Might…if loss hadn’t hollowed her.

She ripped her cooling flesh from his
spectral arms. “I don’t deserve kindness.”

“Good.” He gave her a rakish smirk.
“Because I’m not kind.”

She shook her head, biting back the
emerging smile that had no place on her countenance. She couldn’t be civil, couldn’t
risk the involvement. “I can’t go on like this—stuck betwixt life and death.”

Mia
Jo Celeste
comes from a family of writers and English teachers, so it was no surprise when
she chose to pursue both careers. She grew up watching horror movies and
reading romances. To her, the two genres go together like salty and sweet in
kettle corn.

One long, hot summer I worked in a non-air-conditioned dry
cleaners. Around noon when the last cleaning loads finished, everyone left
because of the stifling heat – except for me, the lowly counter girl. I sat on
a stool and, to pass the time, read the owner’s paperbacks between customers. I
remember being startled when a white-haired gentleman thumped the counter. I
looked up from page 78 of The Wolf and
the Dove and blinked. I couldn’t fathom what this man wanted until he
thrust his claim ticket at me. Yes, I must admit: I was so engrossed in my book
I missed the door buzzer and failed to notice my customer until his counter
slap brought his presence to my attention.

I’d been transported to Darkenwald, in Saxon, England – out of
Kathleen Woodiwiss’ imagination.

Last night I curled up in my favorite armchair and let my present
world slip away so that I could ride shotgun with Stephanie Plum. We cruised
the streets of Trenton, New Jersey, in yet another ill-fated Honda CRV. Again,
I was transported. It was like experiencing a pleasant dream.

James N. Frey in How to Write a Damn Good Novel II says, “As a
fiction writer, you’re expected to transport a reader. Readers are said to be
transported when, while they are reading, they feel they are living in the
story world, and the real world around them evaporates.”

I’ve often wondered how you cause your reader to slip into your
story’s world? James N. Frey suggests using vivid details.

Chrystal McCoy says, “Setting is a great way to allow your reader
to become part of your story.”

When I wrote Other Than,
the setting was important to me. I wanted it to have a Gothic atmosphere, so I
set the story on an isolated island before cell phones, electrical lights and
even before America became a nation. Researching the 1800s, I fell in love with
the gowns, the candlelight and the buildings of a colonial plantation. In
addition, the historical period had an additional benefit because the heroes
had only flintlock guns, which fired one bullet at close range, making the
zombies they encountered super hard to put down.

I hope that readers will love Other
Than’s setting as much as I do, but there are lots of great books and
wonderful settings out there. What novel and setting is your favorite? Please
share.